Issue No. 523 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights the lead, tenor, baritone, and bass parts of your strategy quartet—just in time to delegate to your harmonizing team members! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”
Here’s this month’s edition of your 2022 “Summer Shorts”—brief reviews of a quartet of strategy resources, including the new book, The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists.
Summer Shorts!
Don’t look now (enjoy your vacation)—but in about 90 days, your Board of Directors is expecting Draft #1 of The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan for 2023 and beyond. (Is anyone working on it?) Check the board meeting minutes, but I think there was a strong suggestion that they are expecting a new-and-improved plan—not a carbon copy of last year’s plan, and the previous year’s plan, and the…(well, you get the idea).
So if your current “strategic plan” is as outdated as my metaphors (“Carbon copy,” John? Really?)—here’s some help! For this “Summer Shorts” issue, I’m featuring A QUARTET OF STRATEGY RESOURCES. Forward this eNews to your strategic plan task force (including one board member)—and delegate your reading. Plan an off-site day with the task force in October and ask for book reviews and vacation videos.
POP QUIZ!
What are the four singing parts in a barbershop quartet? (Answer: Lead, Tenor, Baritone, Bass.) What are four strategy resources you should read this summer? (Answer: See the “Strategy Quartet” below.)
LEAD:
[ ] #1. The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists, by Richard P. Rumelt. Click here to order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (10 hours, 53 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending a review copy.
Published in May 2022 with COVID-relevant insights, The Crux dares you to think differently about strategic planning, in fact—the author preaches—don’t even think about the worn-out, over-hyped strategic planning process—especially the “star” of the show, the rhetoric-rich actual document (LOL)! Instead, try this: “Don’t start with goals—start by understanding the challenge and finding its crux.”
The “lead singer/resource ” in this Strategy Quartet notes that Elon Musk built his SpaceX company by focusing on the crux—flying rockets back to earth and reusing them. “By 2018 the Falcon 9’s cost per pound into low-Earth orbit was twenty-three times cheaper than the old space shuttle.” To get to Mars, NASA had estimated a cost of $200 billion. Musk’s estimate: $9 billion.
Known as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers on strategy and management, Rumelt is professor emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. (You remember UCLA, right? They are the latest football program to join the Big 10. After all, they’re practically neighbors with those Cornhuskers. Wait…what?)
If I were on your team—I’d pick The Crux to read and report on. Hot-off-the-press. Fascinating. Practical. Witty. Humble. (Even some mountain climbing references—per the author’s personal experience.) Using real life consulting examples (names have been changed, of course), Rumelt also shares what he learned from clients and from Donald Rumsfeld in 2004, then U.S. Secretary of Defense. (Read my review of Rumsfeld’s Rules.)
Rumsfeld believed leaders were neglecting a key element—the need for a coherent strategy. When Rumsfeld asked Rumelt if his academic colleagues had fixed that problem, Rumelt admitted they had not. The professor’s plan: “Basically, you put a small group of smart people in a room and see what they come up with.” (See Chapter 18, “Rumsfeld’s Question.”)
How did I miss this “giant in the field of strategy?” My favorite chapter, “The Challenge of Power,” is based on a talk the author gave to “the Sons and Daughters of Vikings” in Stockholm, Sweden. He’s also the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.
TENOR:
[ ] #2. What Is Strategy? An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter, by Joan Magretta and Emile Holmewood (Illustrator). Conceived by Heinrich Zimmermann. Click here to order from Amazon. (And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending a review copy.)
When you sing tenor in a barbershop quartet, you’re expected to add interest and appropriate pizzazz. So how do you add vitality and that wow-factor to an already rock solid pillar in the strategy literature? Michael Porter’s classic article, “What Is Strategy?” first appeared in the November–December 1996 issue of Harvard Business Review. (See purchasing options under #3 below.)
So you probably already know which task force member will enjoy reading/viewing this very creative resource—what the prestigious Harvard Business Review Press titles, “An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter.” Better buy two copies, because this eye-catching coffee table book will be “borrowed” by visitors to your reception area.
Similar to the recent publishing trend in business/parable/novel/story graphic format (with very appealing illustrations), What Is Strategy? announces on the first page, “This is not your father’s business book.” (LOL!) Instead, the author clarifies, “It’s aimed at readers in all types of organizations who learn visually as well as verbally. It’s aimed at time-starved readers who want to absorb important content fast. It’s aimed at readers who are serious about learning, but who also enjoy a good laugh.”
In the business story, a fictitious management team—with the help and ideas of the real life Michael Porter, “grapple with the challenges of strategy—and their own egos.” The executive team includes a creative collection of animals (the CFO is a bull!) The panda (HR) tweets, “I wish @CEO would stop with the insensitive animal jokes. #hostileworkplace.”
If someone on your team enjoyed reading/viewing other business novels (graphic-type) such as The Goal and StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad, they will love this illustrated edition.
BARITONE:
[ ] #3. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter). Click here to order from Amazon.
The person who sings baritone in a barbershop quarter rarely stands out—and that’s a good thing. Ditto a good strategy. There’s alignment and coherency. Everything blends together. (Examples: Southwest Airlines and IKEA.)
Option #3.1 – Book. This resource features “10 Must Read” articles on strategy—pulled from back issues of the Harvard Business Review. “What Is Strategy?” is the anchor article.
Option #3.2 – Article. If you just want Porter’s 21-page article—and not the other nine must-reads on strategy, click here to order “What Is Strategy?” which first appeared in HBR in November/December 1996.
Option #3.3 – Article Review. Really? You don’t have time to read a 21-page article? (LOL!) Well then, would you have time to read my 900-word review of Porter’s article? Click here.
BASS:
[ ] #4. Talent, Strategy, Risk: How Investors and Boards Are Redefining TSR, by Bill McNabb, Ram Charan, and Dennis Carey. Click here to order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (7 hours, 13 minutes). And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending a review copy.
POP QUIZ! What should boards be talking about? One word: Talent. The authors of “TSR” write: “Of all the factors that go into the creation of long-term value, talent is the most important one for boards to be talking about.” That’s the first salvo of the triple focus on “TSR” in the 2021 book, Talent, Strategy, Risk.
The authors spotlight a corporate board that “…dedicates one board meeting a year to talent, focusing on CEO succession and development, and discussing in detail the performance of every senior officer of the company.” While I’m partial to books that deliver the goods by page 25, TSR is an over-achiever. The chart on page 19 (six pages early!) delivers eight “lessons of leaders who have made talent their priority.” About half of the book is focused on the board’s role with strategy and talent, including a chapter on “Redesigning the Board’s Committees.” (Don’t get me started! LOL!)
As my long-time readers know, I’m a big fan of the books and wisdom of Ram Charan—but this one almost slipped past me. (In February, I reviewed his most recent book, Talent.)
Without a lively bass singer, all barbershop quartets will fall flat (no pun intended). The bass anchors the group to the rhythm, the lyrics, and all the fun of quartet singing. (How do I know this? I sang bass in my high school’s barbershop quartet.) And when a board does not “own the strategy” (per chapter 5 in Ram Charan’s book, Owning Up), organizations will also fall flat.
So there you have it…four strategy resources (Lead, Tenor, Baritone, and Bass) for you to delegate to your strategic planning task force. And, of course, you’d be disappointed if I signed off without featuring a barbershop quartet chorus toe-tapper—with the post-COVID celebratory lyrics, “Zoom Meetings Are Over!” (Note: Enjoy this 11-minute video parody, “Together Again,” from the Music City Chorus and featured on the Barbershop Harmony Society website. You may not get all the competition’s in-jokes, but…LOL anyway.) View the video here.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) See Figure 10 on page 129 of The Crux, “UN Sustainable Development Goals, 2015”—and you’ll need management therapy after you’ve read the 17 SDGs. Rumelt notes that “each goal points to a desirable outcome.” They are “admirable aspirations, but they are not coherent,” he notes. “Having seventeen inconsistent goals is the indulgence of politicians. A strategist would face such an exuberance of inconsistent ambition by selecting a consistent subset and pushing the rest aside, at least for a while.” But before we lambaste the United Nations for such idiocy, do we dare hold our own annual goals up to the light of day (or a cranky consultant)?
2) Peter Drucker wrote that if you “have more than five goals, you have none.” Richard Rumelt suggests you lead with “the crux,” not goals. One of four major steps in strategic planning, suggested Donald Rumsfeld, is to “Identify Your Key Assumptions.” Are we using a coherent approach to strategy—or have we become victims of what Scott Vandeventer (see the Book Bucket) termed, “management-by-bestseller?”
The Strategy Bucket affirms, “We know our mission statement by memory, and our programs, products and services are in alignment with the mission.” (aka…coherence!) Click here to view this hilarious parody video, “Mission Statement,” from “Weird Al” Yankovic.
POP QUIZ! The Strategy Bucket
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.
The Strategy Bucket Core Competency: “We plan, believing the results are up to God. We energize our people and customers with a Big Holy Audacious Goal (BHAG). We’re systematic—never negligent—in our strategic planning. We know our mission statement by memory, and our programs, products and services are in alignment with the mission.”
At your next staff meeting, surprise your team with this POP QUIZ! “On the blank sheet of paper you have, write down our staff-reviewed and board-approved strategy.” (If all you get are blank stares and blank sheets of paper, then ask for volunteers to read and review one strategy resource from above or below.)
MORE STRATEGY RESOURCES (visit the Strategy Bucket):
[ ] #5. Strategy/Mission Statement Mumbo Jumbo! Before you launch your strategic planning project, view this rhetoric-rich “Mission Statement” video (4.5 minutes) by "Weird Al" Yankovic, the prince of parodies. Click here.
[ ] #6. Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin (read John’s review)
[ ] #7. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0, by Verne Harnish (read John’s review)
[ ] #8. Breakthrough: Unleashing the Power of a Proven Plan, by Randon A. Samelson (read John’s review)
[ ] #9. Another Strategy Oops! The front page of the July 12 edition of The Wall Street Journal announced, “Gap CEO Sonia Syngal Is Stepping Down.” The reason? Old Navy, which is owned by Gap, is doing poorly. “Old Navy last summer introduced a range of sizes to make its clothing more inclusive but the effort backfired, leaving the chain with too many very small and very large sizes and not enough of the middle sizes, which are the most popular. In May, the company said it would scale back the strategy, after reporting disappointing earnings.” (Read the article here.)
The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here.
BONUS! Listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John Pearson (Episode 4, April 21, 2022). And click here to read John's review of Steve's new book, The Discerning Life.
TOUR de FRANCE for DUMMIES! The 2022 cycling marathon, Tour de France, July 1-24, is cleverly explained in the 2005 book, Tour de France for Dummies®. (Read my review here on the Pails in Comparison blog.)
JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your strategy coherent? According to The Crux, “At the simplest level, coherence means that actions and policies do not contradict each other.” Do you need an outsider’s look at your insides? We can help! contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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